New OECD work, Competitive Cities and Climate Change, notes that cities are critical to efforts to avert global climate change. Cities consume ⅔ of all energy and increasing urban sprawl is producing ever more CO2. Local governments in OECD countries are responsible for 70% of public spending on environmental protection and investment and have put in place measures to reduce energy use such as road tolls and energy efficient building standards.

Two new OECD reports will be available: Eco-innovation in Industry: a key engine for green growth analyses, and gives examples of, firms in the manufacturing and services sectors that have found innovative solutions to cut both costs and GHG emissions; and Climate Change and Cities (as above).

Discussions will focus on how to scale up and effectively deliver the public and private financing needed to support climate change and how to successfully implement cost-effective policy mixes, including use of emissions trading schemes, carbon taxes, removal of fossil fuel subsidies, and increased investment in R&D. Invited participants include heads of state and ministers from China, France, India, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Norway and the UK as well as representatives from Dow Chemicals and WWF.